Lesson 6 :: Landscape #4 (your magic arrow flies with precision)
Ta da!!! Finally, a solution that makes sense.
The problem:
Too cool overall. I lost that wonderful orange color that made this piece interesting at an earlier stage. Contrast is what makes a painting interesting—contrast of size, color, shape, texture, value, or temperature. The missing ingredient was temperature and color contrast!
The solution:
So I decided to take a small chance and add a very bright orange, sunlit sky. My light source is from the right (see the tree shadows). So I made up a time of day scenario that was different from what I initially intended. Instead of late afternoon, I decided on light from moments before sunset. That meant not only creating the lush orange sky, but decreasing the intensity of the foreground by pushing down the chroma on the river banks.
So now, rather than the viewer focusing on the foreground, the first point of interest is is in the far distance. The eye travels away toward the back of the picture plane. Or in other words, the focus is the top of the painting and the illusion of distance. The viewer feels more as if they are shooting over the tops of the trees to the distant bluffs at the horizon, reinforcing my title.
Whew! Now I can relax… There is nothing worse to me than a paining left unresolved (failed). Thank you for taking the time to go through these lessons with me. I hope you learned as much as I did!
